S*T*U*F*F* Reloaded

At least ten times a day, the thought crosses my mind that modern life in “developed” countries is just insane. The things we worry about, the craziness of the things we have to do making us stressed out and completely crazy in response. Like air travel and all that goes with it - Foy Vance [...]

Having played Oxegen festival in Ireland last night, pretty much all the bands were heading over to play “T in the Park” today… and we were ALL on the same plane. It was great crack, if slightly surreal - Snow Patrol (good to see some old faces!!), Queens Of The Stone Age (long live Josh [...]

I’m into day four of looking after Luka on my own, and I have to say its more than a full-time job. All of a sudden, the perspective from which I have never seen life is etched in my soul. The mothers who freak out when their hardworking husbands say “well, all you do is [...]

When all’s said and done, how good a singer is Bryan Adams?
Pity his music sucks so badly.

Later with Jools Holland is rattling away on the TV. Aside from the mighty White Stripes, its been a bit uninspiring to say the least. I saw the White Stripes play in Top Of The Pops once. We were all sitting there thinking, “here we go with a royal display of bluffing…” at which point [...]

Every tour has a low point - this is it. We left Coachella festival in California on an extreme low - it was nothing short of a disaster… I can’t even go into it now, but it couldn’t have been worse, as gigs go. In front of such a huge crowd, it was so disappointing [...]

Flat landscape. A canal. A solitary wind generator gracefully turning in the sunshine. It must be Holland. I slept for a long long time… almost forcing myself to avoid facing the longest trip of the tour… a mammoth 14 hour drive from Milan to Amsterdam. In fact, as we left at 7pm last night, and [...]

What a gig last night - one of those life-affirming shows that remind me why it was so good to do this for a living. You could tell from the start that the audience were along for the ride - every tiny change in mood or tempo would have them cheering and swaying… fantastic. JB [...]

So here we are, on the cusp of the tour proper. After 2 shows in London, which were pretty good by London standards, as the crowds can be a bit on the cool side. Last night (Saturday) was the first time the set has felt under control, and the right “shape”… at least Nico and [...]

I’ve just been to the pizza place across the road from the hotel. Its so pathetic I want to scream… here I am in one of the true gastronomic capitals of the world, and I’m eating a pepperoni pizza in a grimy little joint next to a granny wearing Pumas and smoking filterless cigarettes so [...]

Well, I’m breaking my musical drought in what is, for me, pretty spectacular fashion. I’m going on tour with one of my favourite bands - Air, and can hardly wait.

Seeing those scenes of the poor people in Heathrow makes me feel more grateful than ever that we managed to get out of London yesterday - COME ONNNNNN!!!!
Our attempt to get on our flight was broken down into five trials:
1. On arriving at Sydenham station to catch the 6:30 train to Caterham - the only [...]

We are caught up in the current flight-cancellation nightmare that is gripping the UK airports. Following a two-hour grind through Gatwick security yesterday, we had just enough time to let Luka circumnavigate the departure lounge once before we were rounded up and shown the path to baggage reclaim. Grim. And the earliest possible rebooking we [...]

Yes. I have what is known in Latin as “cerebrus friedum”. The fried brain. Too much Flash over the past few days, designing and building some web apps - quite cool ones actually. One was helping out my mates at Spook with a Christmas Tree project to raise money for Cancer Research. The other is [...]

When Diane was watching “24″ - we were living in Australia at the time - I was not. I probably scorned her for watching “more American shite”, as I was in the midst of a total anti-TV year. Now, 3 years on, I find myself sitting tucked up in bed with a glass of fine [...]

I was in Ireland for a few days - I brought little Luka back to see all the relatives, who were beside themselves cooing over the wee guy from the minute we arrived until today, climbing out of the car at “George Best” Belfast City Airport (catchy name - I can just see the huge [...]

Is it just me, or is Ricky Gervais the most over-rated comedian in the universe. As my old granny would say, he is a bag of balls. I watched “Extras” last night… it was just like everything else he’s ever done - like watching episode one of “The Office”, over, and over, and over again. [...]

Just a quick note to say my grandfather John Pendry (in his 80’s) has managed to get a WordPress blog up and running with only the smallest amount of assistance from me - he’s got some great thoughts on things and stories from an amazing life. Go check it out and leave him a comment [...]

Who in their right mind would go on holiday in Belgium? My friend Nikki was right to ask the question as to why we were spending 10 precious days in Northern Europe when we could have been in southern Italy or somewhere gorgeous. Well, when you have friends as cool as Monica Rawlinson & Didier [...]

I don’t even know where to start… Diane and Luka went away to Scotland last week, and thus began a whirlwind week of gigs, music, late nights and sunshine, the strange wakings to silence and missing my little boy. But the major event was the starting of the new record!!